a/n: This story will eventually have one or two original characters from my other fan fiction, but reading the other one is not required to understand this one.
The Broken Sword
It had been dark out when she came, the one they called the Priestess of the Moon. She was not even human, but she seemed angelic anyway. The full moon had shone brightly on the dusty road when the pale specter of her form had glided down the road.
Tall and slim, taller than any woman should be. She wore a priestess' garb, the top light blue, and the bottom black, both with silver stitching. Long bleached white hair fell down to her thighs, but for her bangs which only fell to her shoulders. There was no other color in her gleaming white hair but for a single streak of bright crimson stained into the left side of her bangs. Her skin was a light nut brown, instead of the creamy color most often found in Japan. But her eyes were the most unnerving, the most unnatural. Their depths bore the color of light violet and shone with strange power in her face.
Shiori, was the name that she gave to the world. A name she had been given by her father, whom she loved dearly though she had never met him. Now the girl, just eighteen, wandered throughout Honshuu in search of people who were willing house her, and have their future read in exchange.
That is what she did now, she used the old, singed cards for individual people. But for the whole village, as she was doing now, Shiori used the map painted on the back of dragon hide. Dragons were the creatures who were best at reading the future. Any sort of skin from a supernatural being, even a demon, could have worked, but dragon hide produced the most accurate results.
The stretch of hide was small, even for a dragon, about five square feet in area. At the center, was a circle painted in red, that was where Shiori stood. All around the circle were different shapes and symbols in varying colors. The villagers gathered around her, watching, some with curiosity, others with scorn.
Shiori took a bag tied with gold chain and made with stormy gray velvet from her her waist. She up ended the bag's content in her palm and the villagers gasped. A small pile of flawless moonstones glimmered in her palm.
With the moonstones cupped in both palms and the bag at back in its place, Shiori's eyes unfocused. The gems in her hands began to glow silver, they rose into the air and a strange powers stirred Shiori's hair as though there was a wind, when the villagers could feel none. In small ribbons of light, the stones darted every which way, settling into different places on the dragon hide.
Finally, all the stones had settled, and ceased glowing. Shiori opened her eyes and glanced around. Then she knelt carefully and spread her hands. "This dragon hide represents a map." She told the villagers. "See how it is divided into three different pieces? This one tells the past, this one the present, and this one the future."
"What good is knowing the present, when we already know everything about what goes on in my village?" Demanded the headman.
Shiori raised an eyebrow at the man. "Oh you know everything do you? Did you realize that your scribe has been altering your account books and taking some of your gold for himself?" She pointed to the sign of treachery. A complicated sign, a series of circles, depending on where the stone landed, it indicated deeper rings of deception from a white lie, or a child stealing an apple, or political cunning.
The headman turned red. "I – I don't believe it!" He sputtered. "You're a lying witch."
Shiori shrugged. "I just tell what is, it's up to you to believe me or not."
"What about the past?" A child ventured before his mother could hush him. "What good is knowing the past."
Shiori's uncanny gaze met the eyes of the child. "Have there been no unsolved mysteries here? Nothing about your past, or people's opinions you wish to know?"
She braced her hands withing the ring that she knelt and peered at the past. "Marriages, wealth. Your village was happy, then drought, and oh dear, soldiers came to take your precious supplies." Her eyes shifted to present. "A continued drout, empty bellies, and women crying for their husbands off to war." Everyone held their breath as she turned to look at the future. "You'll be happy, at the end of this month, this horrid drout is going to end, and your village shall have plentiful crops for the next few years. Hardship will land on you again, when..." her voice trailed off, she did not want to tell them what she saw coming. But she shook her head, it was her job to tell them. "A demon will wreak havoc here, and tear all you homes apart."
Women gasped, and men muttered as Shiori stood. She lifted one hand and flicked her fingers in a beckoning motion and the moonstones returned to her. She stepped out of the circle and off the dragon hide, before snapping her fingers and the dragon hid rolled itself up and lifted into her arms.
"Is there no way to prevent this?" The headman demanded of Shiori.
"I have only told what may come to pass, that is the thing about reading the future. There are so many things that interfere, but if it does happen, I beseech you to look to those useless rocky hills for your aid."
She then turned and began to walk down the road. She hadn't really told them everything that she had seen, if she had they would have ruined their future. The demon would come, they would flee to the hills, and then, they would discover gold there. Of course if she told them that, they'd run up there and dig it all up now and ruin their chance of rebuilding their village when the demon came.
Shiori looked up, a small presence drifting in her mind. She smiled and held up one arm as a bird flew down out of the sky. It was a strange bird, its feathers all shining reds and oranges, with a golden sheen. It had a dark burgundy crest that didn't have the golden gleam, like the tips of its wing feathers and the end of the tail feathers. It was, most obviously, one of the fabled phoenixes, though it looked too small. Standing only a scant six inches off Shiori's arm as it landed.
"Hey Reien," Shiori murmured, stroking the phoenix's soft chest feathers. "We have to wait a bit before we hit the road again. They think the river's dry because of drout, I guess I'll going to have to fix this since I'm the only one who knows." Reien cheeped and took flight, flying along above Shiori as she walked along the side of the river bank.
Three hours of hiking later, she came upon her quarry. A large frog demon sat in the middle of the river, blocking its passage, and gulping water down. Shiori's eyes darkened with anger. "Why you great ugly glutton." She shouted, attempting to get the frog's attention. It turned and stared at her on the bank. Mist swirled around her shoulders and took the form of slightly see through wings. See through or not, they gave Shiori the ability of flight.
She rose into the air and raised her left hand. Five triangular shards of crystal materialized at her fingertips, each rather small, but their points deadly sharp. Shiori swept her hand outward in a large arc and the the crystals left her fingers, to strike the demon squarely. It popped and, like a large pustule, and the water flowed freely once more.
A piece of paper floated down and Shiori reached up to catch it. It revealed itself as a folded origami frog with spell symbols written on it. "A mage puppet?" Shiori murmured. "What on earth is a mage puppet this well crafted trying to do?" She looked up the length of the now free river, flowing just under her feet as she was still being held in the air by her wings. She floated back to the stable earth of the bank, still gazing up the river. "What is being guarded here?" Shiori wondered.
Frowning she reached up and touched the glass box on a silver chain that was around her neck. The lid flicked open and the folded frog disappeared inside along with the vanished dragon skin. The box could hold an infinite number of things.
"Reien," Shiori called, the phoenix swooped down to her. "Go up the river and see if there is anything of interest there." Reien did so, flying off into the distance.
Shiori sat down, pondering. It wasn't long before the phoenix returned. A shining piece of metal was clutched in his talons. He dropped it into Shiori's outstretched hand. She ran her fingers over it, with her fortune telling powers she sought out what it was. "A piece of a sword?" She murmured, "why would anyone want to protect a piece of a sword?" She looked up at Reien, "this I think I'll investigate, show me where you found this Reien."
The phoenix led Shiori to a place where the river disappeared into a bluff. Within the rock, Shiori could see a small ledge that someone small could shimmy across, but the water frothing out of the cave's mouth made the stone wet, and years of damp made it slippery with moss.
Shiori gazed at the ledge for a long time, she couldn't see very far beyond it and wasn't sure it was worth getting swept away to figure out the history behind this piece of the metal.
As her fingers clenched around the sword shard, its sharp edges bit into her skin. She drew in a sharp breath and looked at the shard, in the dim light of the afternoon, she could see that it had an odd sheen to it. That it was not a normal sword, a feeble aura was locked into its depths. As blood pooled in her palm, floating the shard slightly, she saw an image. A man, clad entirely in red, long silver hair and flashing amber eyes charged, with a huge sword upraised.
Shiori gasped, and dropped the shard. She had known who she had seen, Inuyasha, the half-demon who had come to her village all those years ago. She wondered why the sword would have an image of Inuyasha in it. As she reached out and took the metal again, it was hot with anger. Anger at the image she had seen, Inuyasha, and his sword, was a foe of this weapon.
Now Shiori had a personal reason to be interested. She owed Inuyasha her life, the life of her mother, and her entire village. She would find out what was going on. With the sword piece safely in her glass box, Shiori shimmied determinedly across the ledge. It was tough going, slippery, and the giant gust of wind created by the gushing water, threatened to drag her into it.
Finally Shiori reached an alcove, that was surprisingly dry. In the darkness, Reien's wings glowed like steady candle light, eliminating the cave. There was a pedestal cut into the wall at the other side, where the sword piece must have lain.
Shiori took out the dragon skin and laid it out, then retrieved her moonstones. She did not scry for future or present, if she scryed only for the past, she was more likely to find information that interested her.
The stones revealed that the sword, as a whole, had been quite powerful, but dangerous to one who was too weak to hold it. It's own forger had fallen prey to its influence, possessed by his own creation. The stones also told of what the sword had been made from, the right canine of an ogre's fang. A fang soaked in the blood of humans making it hard to work with, and very difficult to control. Wind power had also been burned into it when it was forged. That power had come from a talisman jewel that had fallen into the forge when the smith had been making it, he had already been possessed then, and hadn't noticed it.
But the one whom Shiori was most curious about, the sword's wielder, remained nothing but a dark shadow. Powerful and dangerous, with no regard to life, whether it was human demon, but the wielder had but one weakness in their heart. Unfortunately since she was not scrying about the wielder, that weakness was not brought forth. Disappointed by her lack of results concerning the sword's wielders. Shiori rolled up the dragon skin and put the stones away.
Quite suddenly, the ground began to shake. Shiori looked up as cracks snaked along the ceiling. Reien let out a shriek and flew towards the exit. Shiori cried out and tried to follow her source of light, she tripped as the cave fell in behind her. In the moment of staggering, Shiori lost balance and fell into the torrent of water rushing in front of her. The priestess' body was immediately caught up, and rushed away.